Interpretation Required

Outside of the city, out in the rural domain of Oregon on a clear night we look up and see that the stars are brilliant. You can't miss their gussy dress delightful in their sparkle and shine. They sing and dance to the music that tells the familiar anthem, To the Glory of God. What about the words of the Bible? What about each word, each and every individual word? Do they sing and dance to the music, To the Glory of God, too? They do. "Your words, O LORD, give light."

Both forms of revelation from God, natural revelation and special revelation, have their job to be self-explaining, self-interpreting. It's tricky to be faithful, as fallen humans, when it comes to explanation and interpretation of general revelation. What about God's special revelation? The words of Scripture are wordy in their explanation! The Old and New Testaments relate to each other and they explain each other. Wordy, they are, as we say.

The non-inscripturated revelation, general revelation, requires the lens of the words of Bible to rightly explain and interpret the creation around us. Calvin spoke of the illustration of the spectacles of the Scripture. Look at the creation through the lens of the Bible, he taught us. Unfortunately, the spectacles of the Bible are put to the side by contemporary unbelieving scientists when they look at creation. Man, it is wrongly taught, can approach the creation naturally, unbiased and factually.

But words? Words need to be interpreted--after all, the Bible is merely a human book we are wrongly told. Therefore, spectacles of some kind are needed for the Bible they say; it needs interpretation.

But how about the creation? The stars, along with the rest of creation, well, they carry an objectivity. They get an immediate respect. Modern non-Christian science requires that we be scientific with the Bible, not so with God's other book--the creation.

G. Mark Sumpter